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LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

Theological   Seminary, 

PRINCETON,    N.J. 

BT  810  .B53  1849 
Boardman,  Henry  A.  1808- 

1880. 
Two  discourses  on  the 


fcc^cL    /.   //>  f 


TWO  DISCOURSES 


THE   POPULAR  OBJECTIONS 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION. 


HENRY  A.  BOARDMAN,  D.D. 

pastor  of  the  tenth  Presbyterian  church,  Philadelphia. 


$&fiaHeip&fa: 

WILLIAM  S.  YOUNG,  PRINTER.-50  N.  SIXTH  STREET. 

1849. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year 

1849, 

By  A.  W.  Mitchell,  M.D., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


CORRESPONDENCE, 


Philadelphia,  Dec.  30,  1848. 

Rev.  Henry  A.  Boardman,  D.D. 

Dear  Sir:  —  The  undersigned,  members  of  the  con- 
gregation under  your  pastoral  care,  listened  with  much 
interest  to  the  Sermons  recently  preached  by  you,  on 
what  is  popularly  termed  the  subject  of  election.  On 
reflection,  it  has  seemed  to  us  that  so  many  of  the  views 
which  the  advocates  of  that  time-honoured  and  vital 
doctrine  are  called  upon  to  discuss  in  private  life,  are 
there  considered,  that  the  publication  of  the  discourses 
could  not  fail  to  produce  extensive  practical  benefit. 
Permit  us,  therefore,  to  request  that  unless  an  objection 
to  such  a  course  shall  present  itself  to  your  mind,  you 
will  furnish  us  with  your  manuscript  for  this  purpose. 
We  are  your  attached  friends, 

Wm.  A.  Porter, 
Chas.  B.  Penrose, 
W.  H.  Dillingham, 
John  R.  Vogdes, 
Moses  Johnson, 
C.  B.  Jaudon. 
A.  W.  Mitchell, 
Wm.  Harris. 


IV  CORRESPONDENCE. 

Philadelphia,  Jan.  2,  1849. 
Gentlemen : 

The  Sermons  you  have  requested  for  publication,  were 
prepared  and  preached  under  a  strong  conviction  that  the 
doctrine  of  election  was  by  one  large  class  of  persons 
misunderstood,  and  by  another  grossly  perverted.  The 
popular  conceptions  of  the  doctrine  are  thos-e  which  have 
been  supplied  by  its  adversaries;  and  the  objections  to 
which  these  are  justly  obnoxious,  have  been  somewhat 
industriously  employed  to  bring  the  doctrine  itself  into 
discredit,  and  even  to  discourage  inquiry  into  its  scrip- 
tural authority.  From  this  cause,  doubtless,  the  feel- 
ing has  come  to  prevail,  that  the  whole  subject  is  one 
which  had  better  be  let  alone;  and  that  the  pulpit  should 
confine  itself  to  topics  of  a  less  mysterious  and  more 
practical  nature.  But  surely  "all  scripture  is  profit- 
able:" truth  is  in  order  to  holiness:  and  if  election  be 
taught,  and  very  prominently  taught  in  the  word  of  God, 
it  is  not  only  our  duty  to  receive  it,  but  the  belief  of  it 
must  tend  legitimately  to  promote  personal  religion  and 
real  peace  of  mind.  No  one  need  fear  as  to  the  tendency  of 
any  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  It  is  when  the  sacred  truths 
of  revelation  have  been  deformed  and  caricatured,  that 
they  exert  an  influence  prejudicial  to  sound  morality,  or 
minister  to  the  alarm  of  timid  and  doubting  Christians. 
In  no  other  way  can  we  explain  the  state  of  feeling  now 
so  common  respecting  election — a  doctrine  so  clearly  and 


CORRESPONDENCE.  V 

unequivocally  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  that  nearly  all 
the  Reformed  Churches  have  embraced  it  in  their  Con- 
fessions, and  the  due  "  consideration  of  which  (as  the 
Church  of  England  says  in  her  Articles)  is  full  of  sweet. 
pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly  persons." 

It  was  with  a  view  of  removing  misconceptions  and 
vindicating  the  doctrine  from  the  more  specious  of  the 
common  objections  urged  against  it,  that  the  following 
discourses  were  written.  This,  I  hope,  will  be  kept  in 
mind  by  those  into  whose  hands  they  may  fall.  Had  my 
object  been  to  discuss  the  doctrine  itself,  the  whole 
frame-work  of  the  argument  would  of  course  have  been 
different,  and  the  scriptural  proofs  of  the  doctrine  would 
have  been  cited  in  due  form. 

I  am  gratified  to  learn  by  your  polite  note,  that  the 
Sermons  have  not,  in  your  judgment,  entirely  failed  of 
their  mission ;  and  in  the  hope  that  they  may,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  be  still  further  useful,  I  submit  the  manu- 
script to  your  disposal. 

I  remain,  gentlemen,  with  great  respect, 
Your  friend  and  pastor, 

H.  A.  BOARDMAN. 
Messrs.  Wm.  A.  Porter,  Charles  B.  Penrose, 

Wm.  H.  Dillingham,     John  R.  Vogdes, 
Moses  Johnson,  Charles  B.  Jaudon. 

A.  W.  MitchelLjM.D.  Wm.  Harris,  M.D. 
1* 


DISCOURSE  I. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION  NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD. 

:{ According  as  he  hath  chosen  us  in  him  before  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world,  that  we  should  be  holy  and  without  blame 
before  him  in  love ;  having  predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption 
of  children  by  Jesus  Christ  to  himself,  according  to  the  good 
pleasure  of  his  will,  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  his  grace, 
wherein  he  hath  made  us  accepted  in  the  Beloved." — Ephe- 
sians  i.  4 — 6. 

No  doctrine  of  Christianity  has  more  reason 
to  complain  of  the  treatment  it  has  received, 
than  the  doctrine  of  Election.  With  many 
persons,  the  very  name  is  an  offence;  and 
they  will  scarcely  listen  even  to  an  exposition 
of  those  texts  of  Scripture  in  which  the  word 
occurs.  It  is  associated  in  their  minds  with  all 
that  is  unjust  and  vindictive :  and  the  attempt 
to  establish  it  by  argument,  disturbs  their  equa- 
nimity, if  it  does  not  even  awaken  their  re- 
sentment.     The  unfairness  of  the  course  here 


8  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

hinted  at,  must  be  apparent  to  every  candid  in- 
quirer after  truth.  The  class  of  persons  alluded 
to  must  surely  be  aware  that  our  natural  feel- 
ings constitute  no  fit  standard  for  testing  the 
truth  of  a  doctrine.  As  in  physical  science 
many  things  have  been  found  to  be  true  which 
were  once  universally  discredited,  so  it  may 
very  well  happen  in  theology,  the  first  of  all 
sciences,  that  many  doctrines  shall  prove  to 
have  a  solid  foundation  in  the  word  of  God, 
which  are  quite  at  variance  with  the  common 
prepossessions  and  prejudices  of  men.  This  re- 
mark will  apply  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity, 
regeneration,  justification,  and  possibly  some 
others  which  are  fundamental  to  the  Christian 
scheme.  Why  may  it  not  apply  also  to  the 
doctrine  of  election?  When  we  remember  that 
the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  the  Deity  is 
that  of  apostates  and  condemned  criminals,  there 
is  a  palpable  incongruity  in  the  idea  of  leaving 
the  credibility  of  this  doctrine  to  be  determined 
by  the  promptings  of  our  own  hearts,  irrespec- 
tive of  the  testimony  of  Scripture. 

Another   consideration  which   should  abate 
the  violence  of  opposition  to  this  doctrine,  is, 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  9 

that  it  has  not  only  been  embraced  and  defended 
by  many  of  the  wisest  and  purest  men  in  the 
best  days  of  the  Church,  but  is  at  this  moment 
embodied  in  the  creeds  and  confessions  of  the 
great  mass  of  Protestant  Christendom,*  This 
is  not  said  with  a  view  of  sustaining  by  mere 
human  authority,  a  doctrine  wThich  lacks  hio-her 
support.  But  something  is  due  to  the  opinions 
of  a  large  and  intelligent  body  of  men  on  any 
subject;  and  the  fact  that  the  doctrine  in  ques- 
tion has  been  received  by  the  Christian  Church 
generally,  must  have  great  weight  with  every 
candid  person  in  securing  for  it  a  respectful  and 
thorough  consideration  before  it  is  finally  re- 
jected. 

These  observations  are  designed  to  prepare 
the  way  for  a  brief  examination  of  one  of  the 
popular  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  election. 

*  As  a  single  specimen,  take  the  following  from  the 
XVIIth  Article  of  the  Church  of  England—"  Predestina- 
tion to  life  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God,  whereby  (be- 
fore the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid,)  he  hath  con- 
stantly decreed  by  his  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  deliver 
from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  he  hath  chosen  in 
Christ  out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to 
everlasting  salvation  as  vessels  made  to  honour." 


10  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

viz. :  that  it  is  derogatory  to  the  Divine 
character.  It  is  often  said  that  this  doctrine, 
"  instead  of  representing  the  Deity  as  the  indul- 
gent Father  of  his  creatures,  makes  him  a  ty- 
rant, who  has  created  men  merely  to  damn  them, 
and  who  delights  in  witnessing;  their  eternal 
sufferings.' ' 

This  is  a  serious  allegation,  and  if  it  can  be 
sustained,  the  advocates  of  the  doctrine  must  re- 
pudiate it  with  indignation.  But  let  us  see 
whether  it  does  not  proceed  upon  a  total  mis- 
conception of  the  doctrine;  and  whether  the 
charge  which  is  here  preferred  does  not,  in  so 
far  as  it  has  any  real  weight,  lie  with  equal,  if 
not  greater  force,  against  the  systems  of  those 
who  reject  it. 

What,  then,  is  the  doctrine  of  election?  I 
answer,  in  brief,  it  is  this: — God  has,  from  eter- 
nity, out  of  his  mere  good  pleasure,  chosen  in 
Christ  a  certain  definite  portion  of  our  lost  race 
unto  everlasting  glory.  The  persons  thus 
chosen,  being  fallen  in  Adam,  have  been  re- 
deemed by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  they  are  ef- 
fectually called  unto  faith  in  Christ  by  his  Spirit 
working  in  due  season;  and  they  are  justified, 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  H 

adopted,  sanctified,  and  kept  by  his  power 
through  faith  unto  salvation.  The  rest  of  man- 
kind, God  was  pleased,  according  to  the  un- 
searchable counsel  of  his  own  will,  to  pass  by 
and  leave  to  the  just  consequences  of  their  own 
sins. 

Now  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the  Deity 
was  under  no  obligation  to  save  a  single  indi- 
vidual of  our  race.     If  he  was,  there  is  no  grace 
m  redemption:  the  death  of  Christ  was  a  debt 
due  to  us  which  he  had  no  right  to  withhold ; 
and  those  who  enter  heaven,  may  ascribe  their 
salvation,  not  to  the  boundless  mercy  of  God, 
but  to    their  own   merits.     This  point,  how- 
ever, need  not  be  argued;  since  it  is  conceded 
by  most  professed  believers  in  Christianity,  So- 
cmians  and  Pelagians  excepted,  with  whom  at 
present  I  do  not  contend,  that  the  justice  of 
God  would  have  been  unimpeached  had  he  left 
our  whole  race  to  suffer  the  penal  consequences 
of  their  rebellion.     If  then  justice  would  have 
sanctioned  the  final  condemnation  of  the  whole 
race,  where  is  the  injustice  of  saving  a  part?  If 
a  thousand  subjects  are  sentenced  to  die  for  en- 
gaging in  a  traitorous  conspiracy  against  their 


12  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

Prince,  is  he  to  be  charged  with  tyranny  because 
he  sees  fit  to  extend  his  clemency  to  one  half  of 
them  and  pardon  them?  Would  this  afford  any 
just  ground  of  complaint  to  the  remainder? 
Their  sentence  is  not  less  righteous  than  it  was 
before  their  companions  were  liberated ;  nor  is 
its  severity  enhanced.  They  surfer  now  pre- 
cisely what  they  would  have  suffered  without 
this  display  of  the  royal  compassion  to  their 
fellows;  and  they  and  all  men  must  see  that 
there  is  no  wrong  done  in  inflicting  upon  them 
the  penalty  of  the  law.  So  also  in  the  case  be- 
fore us.  The  decree  of  election,  let  it  be  re- 
membered, finds  men  sinners:  it  has  no  agency 
in  making  them  sinners.  This  is  sometimes 
strangely  overlooked.  Language  is  frequently 
used  in  the  discussion  of  this  subject,  which 
seems  to  imply  that  God  has  by  a  positive  in- 
fluence brought  men  into  a  state  of  guilt  and 
misery,  and  that  having  done  this,  he  refuses  to 
extricate  them  from  it.  That  he  has,  for  wise 
and  holy  purposes  not  revealed  to  us,  permitted 
our  race  to  fall  into  sin,  is  most  true.  Why  he 
has  done  so,  is  a  question  on  which  many 
volumes  have  been  written,  perhaps  to  little  pur- 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  13 

^ose.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  apostacy  of 
mankind  may  be,  in  some  particulars,  overruled 
for  good.  The  astonishing  display  of  the  Di- 
vine perfections,  furnished  by  the  work  of  re- 
demption, and  the  height  of  glory  to  which  the 
saints  will  be  exalted  hereafter,  are  among  the 
great  and  beneficent  results  that  have  been 
educed  from  the  awful  catastrophe  in  which  the 
race  has  been  overwhelmed.  And  we  infer 
from  the  nature  of  the  moral  government  of 
God,  and  from  some  obscure  intimations  in  the 
Scriptures,  that  the  events  which  have  occurred 
in  our  world  will  yet  have  an  important  influ- 
ence upon  every  part  of  His  wide  empire.  Still, 
after  all  our  reasonings  and  conjectures,  there  is 
a  mystery  about  the  permission  of  evil  which  is 
inexplicable  to  us  in  our  present  imperfect  state. 
It  is  an  ocean  we  cannot  fathom.  That  God  ^ 
foresaw  all  the  consequences  which  were 
to  follow  the  fall  of  Adam,  that  he  knew  it 
would  involve  millions  of  souls  in  everlasting 
misery,  that  he  could  have  prevented  it,  had  he 
seen  fit  to  exert  his  power  for  that  purpose, 
but  that  he  actually  permitted  it  to  take  place, 
are  plain  facts  which  must  be  admitted  by  every 
2 


14  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

humble  believer  in  Christianity.  Beyond  the 
facts  we  cannot  go.  Happily  we  are  not  re- 
quired to  explain  them.  We  receive  them  as 
facts,  on  the  testimony  of  God:  and  although 
we  cannot  clear  them  up,  we  bow  submissively 
to  the  teachings  of  the  Spirit,  and  are  satisfied 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Divine  procedure 
in  these  transactions  which  is  at  all  at  variance 
with  the  glorious  perfections  of  the  Godhead. 

Now  the  facts  just  stated  are  the  same,  what- 
ever views  may  be  adopted  respecting  the  ap- 
plication of  the  remedy  which  has  been  provided 
for  the  evils  of  the  fall.  Men  may  receive  or 
reject  the  doctrine  of  election :  the  fact  still  re- 
mains, that  our  race  have  sinned,  and  are  there- 
fore under  the  wrath  and  curse  of  God.  The 
lost  condition  of  the  race  is  a  fact  independent 
of  election ;  a  fact,  therefore,  which  it  devolves 
as  much  upon  the  impugners  of  that  doctrine  to 
explain,  as  upon  its  friends;  and  one  which 
presses  with  equal  weight  upon  their  theories. 
We  say,  the  race  is  in  ruins ;  and  they  assent  to 
it.  We  say,  further,  that  God  was  not  bound 
to  provide  a  Saviour  for  any  portion  of  the  race ; 
and  that  to  assert  the  contrary,  is  to  maintain 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  16 

the  principle  that  whenever  a  subject  commits 
a  crime,  his  sovereign  is  under  obligation,  at 
whatever  expense  or  sacrifice,  to  proffer  him  a 
pardon.  Contemplating  the  race  in  its  guilt. 
and  misery,  God  was  pleased  to  determine  that 
he  would  rescue  a  certain  number  from  the 
doom  which  all  had  incurred.  Was  this  injus- 
tice ?  Was  this  tyranny  ?  Are  similar  acts  on 
the  part  of  earthly  kings  ever  branded  with 
these  epithets?  Are  they  not  rather  applauded 
as  acts  of  singular  lenity  and  kindness?  And 
if  an  example  were  to  occur  of  a  prince  who 
should  pardon  part  of  a  band  of  conspirators, 
even  when,  from  reasons  of  state,  he  must,  in 
order  to  do  it,  make  a  sacrifice  equivalent  to 
that  of  surrendering  an  only  son  to  an  ignomi- 
nious death;  what  would  be  thought  of  men 
who  should  contend  that  this  sublime  and  af- 
fecting transaction  was  only  an  evidence  of  his 
cruelty !  who,  instead  of  extolling  his  generosity 
and  benevolence  in  pardoning  at  such  a  cost  a 
portion  of  the  traitors,  should  only  cavil  because 
he  had  not  pardoned  the  whole !  This  illustra- 
tion appears  to  me  to  present  in  its  true  light 
the  objection  to  the  doctrine  of  election  which 


16  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

we  are  considering.  So  far  from  being  an  evi- 
dence of  cruelty,  the  decree  of  election  is  the 
offspring  of  pure,  ineffable,  and  eternal  love. 
Sovereign  love,  I  grant  it  is,  as  every  thing 
else  is  which  pertains  to  the  Deity.  But  still 
it  is  love.  If  there  be  any  love  in  the  gift  of 
God's  only-begotten  Son  to  die  for  us,  if  there 
be  any  love  in  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ, 
if  there  be  any  love  in  rescuing  millions  and 
millions  of  souls  from  hell,  and  raising  them  to 
everlasting  glory  and  felicity,  then  is  election 
the  fruit  of  love  and  not  of  wrath.  For  elec- 
tion lies  at  the  foundation  of  redemption  and 
all  its  beneficent  results:  "for  whom  he  did  pre- 
destinate, (that  is,  whom  he  "  chose  in  Christ 
Jesus  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,")  them 
he  also  called,  and  whom  he  called,  them  he 
also  justified,  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he 
also  glorified."  So  far  should  we  be  from  re- 
pudiating this  precious  doctrine,  or  investing  it 
with  terror,  that  we  ought  to  cling  to  it  as  the 
ground  of  our  hopes,  and  fly  to  it  in  seasons  of 
trial  as  the  anchor  of  our  souls. 

Here,  in  so  far  as  the  justice  of  God  is  con- 
cerned, the  discussion,  it  is  believed,  might  be 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD. 


safely  closed.  But  this  doctrine  is  charged 
with  presenting  the  Divine  character  in  a  repul- 
sive aspect,  in  other  particulars,  and  I  must  de- 
tain you  with  a  further  consideration  of  the  sub- 
ject. 

It  is  contended  that  we  place  needless  limita- 
tions to  the  mercy  of  God,  in  representing  him 
as  restricting  his  love  to  a  part  of  the  race. — 
"  Since  he  is  infinitely  good  (it  is  argued,)  he 
must  delight  in  the  happiness  of  all  his  crea- 
tures. How  then  can  he  select  a  portion  of 
them  as  the  objects  of  his  special  regard,  and 
leave  the  rest  to  perish?  Surely  it  is  more  ho- 
nourable to  the  Deity  to  suppose  that  he  makes 
no  such  discrimination  among  them  as  this  doc- 
trine implies,  but  loves  them  all  with  an  equal 
love,  and  employs,  in  all  instances,  the  same 
means  for  their  salvation." 

These  sentiments  commend  themselves,  it  is 
readily  granted,  to  the  best  feelings  of  our  hearts, 
and  they  seem  to  present  the  character  of  God 
in  a  very  amiable  aspect.  To  sinful  creatures 
mercy  must  always  appear  a  more  lovely  attri- 
bute than  justice ;  and  it  seems  at  first  view  to  be 
highly  honourable  to  the  Creator,  to  represent 


IS       THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

him  as  extending  the  same  compassion  to  each  hv 
dividual  of  our  fallen  race.  But  we  are  not,  on 
a  question  of  this  kind,  to  take  counsel  of  our  own 
feelings.  Our  inquiry  is  not  as  to  what  God 
might  have  done,  nor  as  to  what  we  should 
have  preferred  his  doing,  but  as  to  what  he  has 
done. 

The  objection  affirms  the  goodness  of  God. 
On  this  point  there  can  be  no  controversy :  this 
attribute  beams  forth  from  the  works  of  nature, 
and  from  the  pages  of  revelation,  with  the  splen- 
dour of  a  noon-tide  sun.  But  the  objection  far- 
ther assumes  that  because  God  is  good,  he  is 
bound,  by  the  necessity  of  his  nature,  to  do  all 
the  good  he  can  to  each  one  of  his  creatures. 
This  inference  is  false  in  philosophy  and  in  fact. 
It  proceeds  upon  the  notion  that  the  possession 
of  an  attribute  or  faculty,  involves  necessarily 
the  constant  exercise  of  it,  and  that  to  its  full 
extent.  This  is  so  palpably  erroneous  that  the 
mere  statement  of  it  must  be  sufficient  to  show 
its  absurdity.  The  perfections  of  Jehovah  are, 
it  is  true,  in  one  sense,  infinite,  but  they  must 
be  limited  by  each  other  in  their  exercise  ;  other- 
wise there  would  be  a  continual  conflict  in  the  Di- 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  19 

vine  mind ;  and  the  Supreme  Being,  instead  of 
enjoying  ineffable  happiness,  would  be  misera- 
ble in  himself  and  most  inconsistent  in  his 
actions.  As  to  the  particular  attribute  under 
consideration,  it  should  be  remembered  that 
goodness  ceases  to  be  goodness  unless  it  is  di- 
rected by  wisdom.  If  we  separate  it  from  this, 
we  degrade  it  to  the  level  of  a  mere  instinct, 
which,  as  it  would  operate  without  intelligence 
or  design,  so  it  could  excite  neither  our  respect 
nor  our  gratitude. 

Observe,  again,  how  irreconcilable  with  ob- 
vious and  admitted  facts,  is  the  principle  on 
which  this  objection  is  founded,  viz. :  the  princi- 
ple that  because  God  is  good,  he  is  bound  to 
do  all  he  can  to  preserve  his  creatures  from  suf- 
fering and  to  make  them  individually  happy.  I 
say  "  individually  happy,"  because  both  reason 
and  Scripture  require  us  to  believe  that  he  will 
seek  the  happiness  of  the  intelligent  universe 
as  a  whole,  in  that  way  which  may  most  effec- 
tually promote  his  own  glory. 

However  agreeable  it  might  be  to  our  con- 
ceptions of  the  Divine  character  to  suppose  that 
he  would  not  permit  a  single  one  of  his  crea- 


20  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

tures  to  suffer,  if  he  could  prevent  it,  we  per- 
ceive at  a  glance  that  this  sentiment  is  discoun- 
tenanced by  the  whole  history  of  his  dispensa- 
tions towards  our  race.  The  apostacy  of  our 
first  parents,  already  adverted  to,  is  an  illustra- 
tion in  point.  Could  he  not  have  prevented 
that,  had  he  seen  fit  to  do  it?  And  after  per- 
mitting it,  might  he  not  have  arrested  the  con- 
sequences of  it  with  the  guilty  pair  themselves, 
without  allowing  the  curse  to  be  entailed  upon 
the  countless  generations  of  their  posterity? 
Look,  too,  at  the  varied  evils  under  which  man- 
kind have  been  groaning  ever  since  the  fall. 
Look  at  the  pains  and  sicknesses,  the  poverty 
and  ignorance,  the  injustice  and  oppression,  the 
vices  and  cruelties,  with  which  the  earth  is 
scourged.  Are  not  these  things  under  God's 
control,  and  might  he  not  remove  them  if  he 
saw  fit  to  do  so? — Take  another  class  of  facts 
still  more  to  our  purpose  in  this  argument,  viz. : 
facts  which  show  that  he  has  exercised  his  sove- 
reignty in  relieving  a  part  of  the  race  from  the 
effects  of  the  apostacy.  There  was  a  wide  dif- 
ference in  the  characters  even  of  Adam's  two 
sons :  one  of  them  was,  by  a  Divine  influence, 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  21 

made  a  believer,  the  other  was  left  an  unbeliever ; 
one  was  adopted  as  a  child  of  God,  the  other 
remained  a  child  of  the  devil.  In  the  same 
sovereign  manner,  God  became  the  friend  and 
protector  of  Noah  and  his  family,  and  destroyed 
all  the  other  families  of  the  earth  with  a  flood. 
He  revealed  the  true  religion  to  Abraham  and 
a  portion  of  his  descendants,  and  left  the  rest 
of  the  nations  to  idolatry  and  the  terrible 
retribution  he  has  denounced  against  it.  Un- 
der the  Christian  dispensation  he  has  given 
the  gospel  to  some  countries  and  withheld  it 
from  others,  and  in  not  a  few  instances  he  has 
withdrawn  it  from  lands  which  once  possessed 
it.  Nay,  he  has  distributed  his  favours  among 
the  inhabitants  of  the  same  land  and  within  the 
same  community,  with  the  like  inequality — some 
individuals  being  placed  in  situations  highly  fa- 
vourable to  their  spiritual  welfare,  and  others  in 
circumstances  so  hostile  to  religion  that  their 
salvation  would  be  little  short  of  a  miracle. 

Now  in  reference  to  these  and  other  similar 
facts,  we  are  presented  with  a  single  alterna- 
tive. We  must  either  maintain  that  these 
events  are  not  under  the  control  of  God,  and 


22  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

that  he  could  not  alter  them  if  he  would,  or  we 
must  admit  that  he  does^  for  wise  purposes,  per- 
mit his  creatures  to  suffer,  and  that  he  exercises 
his  sovereignty  in  making  a  difference  between 
them.  The  former  branch  of  this  alternative 
will  not  be  taken  by  any  one  who  has  a  proper 
veneration  for  the  Deity ;  and  I  shall  therefore 
waste  no  time  in  considering  it.  The  only  spe- 
cious way  in  which  the  force  of  the  latter  part 
of  it  can  be  evaded,  is  this, viz.:  by  alleging 
that  the  difference  which  it  is  here  asserted  is 
made  by  Jehovah  among  his  creatures,  is  a  dif- 
ference in  their  temporal  circumstances  merely, 
not  in  their  spiritual  and  eternal  state.  It  is 
obvious  to  remark  in  reply,  that  the  principle 
involved  is  the  same,  whether  the  diversity  cre- 
ated among  them  pertains  to  the  present  or  the 
future  life :  if  it  would  be  incompatible  with  the 
Divine  perfections  to  sanction  it  in  the  one  case, 
it  must  be  equally  so  in  the  other.  But,  waiving 
this,  who  does  not  see  that  the  plea  has  no  foun- 
dation in  fact?  It  is  not  true  that  the  diversi- 
fied allotments  which  are  assigned  to  our  race 
in  this  world,  are  restricted  in  their  influence  to 
the  present  life.     It  is  too  manifest  to  admit  of 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  23 

a  question,  that  in  appointing  the  temporal  con- 
dition of  men,  with  all  its  attendant  circum- 
stances, God  does,  to  a  great  extent,  decide 
their  eternal  destiny.  There  is,  for  example,  a 
moral  certainty  that  the  individuals  who  are 
born  in  the  heart  of  Asia  or  Africa,  will  perish 
in  their  sins,  and  go  down  with  all  idolaters  to 
the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone. 
Can  it  be  said  that  in  so  ordering  events  as  to 
ensure  their  birth  in  the  midst  of  pagan  super- 
stitions, the  Creator  has  determined  nothing  in 
regard  to  their  prospects  for  eternity  ?  And  as 
to  Christian  lands,  does  he  determine  nothing 
as  to  the  future  life  in  giving  to  some  indi- 
viduals, pious  parents,  a  religious  education,  free 
access  to  all  the  means  of  grace,  and  a  circle  of 
friends  whose  example  and  counsels  are  adapted 
to  lead  them  into  the  way  of  salvation ;  while 
others,  the  children  of  vicious  parents,  are  left 
to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  the  God  who  made 
them,  daily  exposed  to  all  the  enticements  of 
intemperance  and  debauchery,  and  without  a 
single  friend  to  admonish  them  of  their  danger 
and  to  care  for  their  souls?  Surely  these  fa- 
miliar facts  are  sufficient  to  show,  that  while  God 


24  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

is  merciful  and  kind,  he  claims  the  right  to  dis- 
pose of  his  creatures  in  that  way  which  may 
best  promote  the  great  ends  of  his  government ; 
and  none  are  permitted  to  c  stay  his  hand  or  say 
unto  him,  What  doest  thou?  ' 

We  need  not,  however,  rest  here.  There  are 
other  facts  which  deserve  the  special  attention 
of  those  who,  from  the  most  amiable  motives, 
are  so  prompt  in  repelling  as  a  slander  upon  the 
Almighty,  the  idea  that  he  can  elect  one  portion 
of  our  race  to  salvation  and  leave  the  rest  to 
perish.  How,  on  the  principles  assumed  by 
these  persons,  is  the  providence  of  God  towards 
the  angels  to  be  explained?  Here  there  is  no 
room  for  conjecture.  It  is  a  fact  recorded  by 
inspired  men,  that  a  part  of  the  angelic  throng 
have  rebelled  against  God,  and  that  he  has  sent 
them  down  to  hell,  to  suffer  eternal  torment  and 
despair.  How  is  this  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
divine  goodness,  by  those  who  denounce  the 
doctrine  of  election  with  so  much  vehemence,  in 
its  application  to  the  human  family  ?  Was  there 
no  election  here?  If  not,  why  are  the  holy 
angels  called  the  "elect  angels?"  and  why  are 
they  steadfast  in  holiness,  while  their  fellows, 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  25 

once  as  glorious  in  purity  and  intelligence  as 
they,  are  writhing  under  the  vengeance  of  eternal 
fire?  Is  it  said,  that  the  lost  spirits  are  only 
suffering  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes? 
This  is  true :  but  the  question  still  recurs,  why 
were  .they  permitted  to  rebel  ?  Why  did  not 
the  same  hand  w^hich  had  previously  held  them 
up,  and  which  still  upholds  their  companions,  de- 
fend them  from  that  fatal  temptation  by  which 
they  were  overcome,  and  for  yielding  to  which 
they  were  hurled  as  lightning  from  heaven?  I 
do  not  ask  these  questions  expecting  them  to  be 
answered.  For  setting  aside  the  impious  answer 
of  those  modern  theologians  who  say  that  God 
could  not  prevent  their  apostacy;  no  solution 
of  the  mystery  can  be  given :  we  can  only  re- 
solve it,  as  all  sincere  and  humble  Christians  are 
accustomed  to  do,  into  the  sovereign  pleasure 
of  God,  and  say,  "Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it 
seemed  good  in  thy  sight."  But  the  questions 
are  designed  to  show  that,  no  argument  can  be 
drawn  from  the  goodness  of  the  Deity,  to  dis- 
prove the  doctrine  of  election.  We  bring  for- 
ward the  acknowledged  fact,  that  in  the  case  of 
an  order  of  creatures  every  way  more  exalted 


y 


26       THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

than  our  own,  God  has  displayed  his  sovereignty 
in  allowing  some  of  them  to  fall,  to  rise  no 
more,  while  he  has  confirmed  the  remainder  in 
holiness  and  happiness.  Inexplicable  as  this 
procedure  appears  to  us,  we  do  not  allow  it  to 
affect  in  the  least  degree  our  notions  of  the  Di- 
vine goodness.  Our  confidence  in  his  rectitude, 
his  benevolence,  and  his  mercy,  cannot  be  shaken 
even  by  the  weeping  and  wailing  which  resound 
through  the  gloomy  prison  of  those  once  pure 
and  blessed  beings.  Why  then  should  it  be 
thought  a  thing  incredible  that  the  all-wise 
Creator  should  pursue  a  similar  course  towards 
ourselves  ?  How  can  it  be  incompatible  with  his 
goodness  to  do  with  our  race,  as  we  know  he 
has  done  wTith  the  angels?  And  with  what 
reason  can  it  be  alleged  that  the  decree  of  elec- 
tion makes  Him  a  "tyrant,"  when  applied  to 
us,  although  it  involves  no  impeachment  of  his 
justice  or  goodness  when  applied  to  them?  _Con- 
sistency  would  seem  to  require  that  those  who 
brand  the  doctrine  with  so  many  hard  names  in 
the  one  case,  should  not  shrink  from  the  respon- 
sibility of  characterizing  it  in  the  same  way  in 
the  other  also. 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  27 

But  there  is  still  another  fact  to  be  presented,  f^.\ 
of  no  small  weight  in  this  discussion.  Is  it  not 
sometimes  overlooked,  in  the  strong  prejudice 
which  is  felt  against  this  doctrine,  that  a  very 
large  portion  of  mankind  do  actually  perish  ? 
Whether  there  be  or  be  not  such  a  thing  as  un- 
conditional election  to  everlasting  life — whether 
the  doctrine  be  embraced  or  rejected — the  fact  is 
admitted  by  all,  except  Deists  and  Universalists, 
that  multitudes  of  our  race  are  lost  eternally. 
We  press  this  fact  upon  those  who  allege  that 
our  doctrine  is  a  calumny  upon  the  Deity.  We 
call  upon  them  to  point  out  in  what  respect  it 
is  more  derogatory  to  the  Deity  than  their  own 
avowed  belief  that  many  of  the  race  are  finally 
damned.  We  insist  upon  their  showing  that  a 
single  individual  is  lost,  assuming  our  view  of 
the  doctrine  of  election,  who  would  not  be  lost 
if  the  doctrine  were  expunged  from  the  book  of 
God's  purposes.  In  other  words,  we  require 
them  to  prove  that  election  adds  a  solitary  sin- 
ner to  the  number  of  them  that  perish.  We 
utterly  deny  that  it  does  this.  We  maintain 
that  no_man  is  made  a  sinner  by  this  decree :  j 
and  that  no  man  will  be  condemned  to  hell  for 


28  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

not  being  elected  to  salvation.  That  it  is  the 
non-elect  who  will  be  condemned,  is  most  true; 
but  the  ground,  the  meritorious  ground  of  their 
condemnation,  will  be,  not  the  fact  of  their  non- 
election,  but  the  fact  that  they  are  sinners. 
Under  the  government  of  a  righteous  God,  no- 
thing but  sin  can  be  the  ground  of  punishment : 
and  non-election  is  no  sin.  The  only  fore-ordi- 
nation of  men  to  perdition,  known  to  the  Bible 
or  to  our  Standards,  is  a  fore-ordination  of  the 
wicked  to  wrath  on  account  of  their  sins,  not 
as  some  w^ould  represent,  irrespective  of  their 
sins.  The  elect  are  chosen  without  any  fore- 
sight of  their  faith  or  good  works,  solely  by  the 
good  pleasure  of  the  Almighty :  the  rest  of  the 
race  are  also  contemplated  by  Him  in  their  true 
moral  character,  that  is,  as  sinners  and  rebels; 

and  ON  THE  GROUND  OF  THEIR  POSSESSING  THIS 

character,  a  character,  let  it  be  observed, 
which  election  has  no  agency  in  forming,  they 
are  "ordained  to  dishonour  and  WTath."  In 
other  words,  the  decree  of  election  leaves  the. 
wicked  where  it  found  them.  It  is  simply  a 
"taking  out"  from  among  them,  those  who  are 
chosen  to  eternal  life:  as  we  read,  Acts  xv.  14, 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD,  29 

in  the  speech  of  the  apostle  James  at  Jerusalem : 
"Simeon  hath  declared  how  God,  at  the  first, 
did  visit  the  Gentiles,  to  take  out  of  them  a 
people  for  his  name,"j  If  none  were  thus  "  takeii 
out,"  it  is  manifest,  all  would  perish :  so  thai 
election,  as  has  been  argued  in  the  former  part 
of  this  discourse,instead  of  increasing  the  number 
of  the  lost,  lays  the  sole  foundation  for  the  sal- 
vation of  any  portion  of  the  race. 

Since,  then,  millions  of  the  race  are  actually 
lost,  and  since  the  decree  of  election  not  only 
has  no  agency  in  the  destruction  of  a  single  in- 
dividual of  this  number,  but  secures  the  salvation 
of  a  multitude  who  would  otherwise  perish,  we 
ask  in  what  respect  our  doctrine  is  so  deroga- 
tory to  the  Divine  perfections ;  and  we  inquire 
of  those  who  differ  from  us,  how  they  will  re- 
concile to  His  perfections,  on  their  own  princi- 
ples, the  perdition  of  so  many  of  their  fellow- 
creatures.  Here  are  the  frvgo  facts:  God  is 
infinitely  upright,  and  wise,  and  good  \  and  yet 
a  large  part  of  our  race  are  to  be  shut  up  in  hell 
for  ever.  How  are  these  facts  to  be  harmo- 
nized? If  we  are  told  that  the  perdition  of  the 
wicked  does  not  impeach  the  divine  goodness. 
3* 


30  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

because  He  would  gladly  save  them  if  he  had 
the  ability  to  do  so — that  he  has  provided  a 
Redeemer,  instituted  a  system  of  means,  and 
done  all  that  he  could  to  bring  the  whole  race 
to  repentance,  but  that  in  multitudes  of  cases  he 
has  failed  of  success,  and  his  creatures  have  per- 
severed in  sin  notwithstanding  his  utmost  efforts 
to  reclaim  them, — if  we  are  told  this,  we  have, 
indeed,  an  answer  to  the  question,  and  an  ade- 
quate cause  assigned  for  the  destruction  of  the 
impenitent.  But  see  what  an  answer!  In  order 
to  vindicate  the  goodness  of  God,  he  is  stripped 
of  his  power.  The  free-will  of  man  is  made 
paramount  to  the  omnipotence  of  his  Maker. 
Instead  of  that  great  and  glorious  Being  who  is 
clothed  with  majesty  and  strength,  who  "  rideth 
upon  the  heavens,"  whose  "voice  is  like  the 
voice  of  many  waters,"  who  "  hangeth  the  earth 
upon  nothing,"  and  "divideth  the  sea  with  his 
power,"  at  whose  reproof  "  the  pillars  of  heaven 
tremble  and  are  astonished,"  and  before  whom 
seraphs  veil  their  faces:  we  have  presented  to 
us  a  Being,  benevolent  and  amiable  indeed,  but 
utterly  unable  to  govern  his  creatures,  and  who 
ifl  obliged  to  stand  by  and  see  them  perish  in 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  31 

despite  of  every  plan  he  can  devise,  and  every 
influence  he  can  employ  to  prevent  it.  Is  this 
the  God  of  the  Bible?  Is  the  Lord  God  Om- 
nipotent really  so  imbecile  a  sovereign  that  his 
subjects  can  countervail  his  purposes  and  defeat 
plans  which  are  identified  with  his  own  glory? 
And  are  we  to  be  told  by  those  who  embrace 
these  unworthy  views  of  the  Deity,  that  "the 
doctrine  of  election  is  derogatory  to  the  divine 
character?"  Does  it  befit  them  to  rebuke  the 
friends  of  this  doctrine,  who  begin  their  vindi- 
cation of  the  Almighty  by  breaking  his  sceptre, 
and  taking  off  his  crown,  and  pulling  down  the 
pillars  of  his  throne,  and  proclaiming  in  the  face 
of  earth,  and  heaven,  and  hell,  that  the  creatures 
he  has  formed  out  of  the  dust  of  his  footstool, 
are  independent  of  his  control,  and  that  he  can- 
not save  them  unless  in  the  exercise  of  their 
free-will  they  shall  permit  him  to  do  it?  We  / 
rejoice  that  we  know  no  such  divinity  as  this. 
Bad  as  our  doctrine  may  be  in  the  judgment  of 
its  opposers,  it  at  least  leaves  us  a  God  whom 
we  can  respect.  Sooner  than  impugn  the 
glorious  majesty  of  the  Godhead  and  degrade 
him  to  their  standard,  we  would  have  "the 


o'J  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

clouds  and  darkness"  which  enwrap  his  throne, 
seven  fold  deeper,  and  the  manifestations  of  his 
vengeance  upon  the  vessels  of  wrath,  seven  fold 
more  awful  than  they  are.  In  reasoning  upon 
his  goodness  we  may  err,  especially  when  we  are 
attempting,  rather  from  the  light  of  nature  than 
from  Scripture,  to  prescribe  what  his  goodness 
may  require  him  to  do  for  an  apostate  race  like 
our  own.  But  we  cannot  err  in  ascribing  to 
him  absolute  sovereignty  over  all  the  works 
of  his  hands. 

We  decline,  then,  the  explanation  on  which 
others  choose  to  rest,  of  the  painful  fact  that 
millions  of  our  race  are  actually  lost.  In  our 
view,  the  fact  assumed  to  explain  it,  viz.:  that 
the  Deity,  though  he  desires  to  the  utmost  their 
salvation,  has  no  ability  to  accomplish  it,  would 
involve,  if  established,  an  infinitely  greater  ca- 
tastrophe to  the  universe,  than  the  perdition  of 
a  thousand  worlds  like  this.  The  only  alterna- 
tive which  remains  to  us,  is  to  fall  back  upon 
the  Divine  sovereignty.  The  all- wise  God,  for 
reasons  unrevealed  to  us,  has  not  seen  fit  to  ex- 
tend his  pardoning  mercy  to  the  whole  of  the 
race,  and  a  portion  of  them  are  left  to  suffer  the 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  33 

just  penalty  of  their  sins.  This  solution  may 
not  be  very  flattering  to  our  intellectual  pride, 
nor  very  satisfactory  to  our  curiosity ;  but  it  is 
the  only  one  which  the  Scriptures  furnish,  and 
it  must  suffice  us  for  the  present  life.  I  leave 
it  to  you  to  decide  whether  the  difficulties 
with  which  the  fact  that  so  many  perish  is 
encumbered,  are  mitigated  or  eluded  by  discard- 
ing the  doctrine  of  election;  and  whether  this 
doctrine,  fairly  understood,  contains  any  thing 
so  derogatory  to  the  Deity,  as  the  theories  to 
which  it  stands  opposed.  The  doctrine  does 
indeed  recognise  his  sovereignty,  and  herein  it 
may  disturb  the  composure  of  those  who  love 
to  think  of  him  only  as  the  kind  and  compas- 
sionate Father  of  his  creatures.  But  it  is  sub- 
mitted to  their  candour,  whether  his  paternal 
character  is  the  only  one  in  which  the  Scrip- 
tures present  him  to  us.  Let  them  turn,  for 
example,  to  the  first  chapter  of  l^Corinthians,  \C^ 
where^they  will  find  it  thus  written,  (vs.  26 — 
'29,)  "For  ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,  how 
that  not  many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not 
many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are  called:  but 
God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world 


34  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

to  confound  the  wise ;  and  God  hath  chosen  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things 
which  are  mighty ;  and  base  things  of  the  world, 
and  things  which  are  despised,  hath  God  chosen, 
yea,  and  things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to 
naught  things  that  are:  that  no  flesh  should 
glory  in  his  presence."^  And  let  them  read  the 
ninth  chapter  of  Romans,  and  attend  especially 
to  this  language:  "I  will  have  mercy  on  whom 
I  will  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  compassion 
on  whom  I  will  have  compassion.  So  then  it 
is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  run- 
neth, but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy.  .  .  He 
hath  mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and 
whom  he  will  he  hardeneth."  Can  any  impar- 
tial person  fail  to  see  that  the  Most  High  chal- 
lenges to  himself  in  these  passages  the  loftiest 
prerogatives  of  a  universal  sovereignty?  that 
He  asserts  his  unqualified  right  to  dispense  his 
favours,  and  even  to  dispose  of  us,  his  rational 
creatures,  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will? 
Let  the  class  of  persons  whom  I  now  address, 
review  again  the  facts  which  have  been  cited 
in  this  discussion, — the  fall  of  our  first  parents, 
the  endless  diversity  in  the  circumstances  of 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  OD 

mankind  with  respect  to  their  spiritual  privi- 
leges, the  various  calamities  which  overspread 
the  earth,  the  apostacy  and  punishment  of  the 
angels,  and  the  perdition  of  so  many  of  our  race, 
— and  let  them  say  whether  these  facts  do  not 
illustrate  and  confirm  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 
that  God  is  as  well  a  sovereign  as  a  father.  It 
avails  nothing  to  avert  our  eyes  from  testimony 
like  this.  It  is  not  to  be  neutralized  by  a  refu- 
sal to  consider  it.  And  they  who  will  consider 
it,  cannot  consistently  object  to  the  doctrine  of 
election  on  the  ground  that  it  is  derogatory  to 
the  Divine  perfections,  because  they  admit  the 
existence  of  numerous  facts,  and,  of  course, 
believe  them  to  be  compatible  with  his  perfec- 
tions, which  really  involve  the  very  exercise  of 
sovereignty  implied  in  this  doctrine. 

We  agree  with  our  brethren  who  reject  the 
doctrine,  that  it  is  delightful  to  think  of  the  in- 
comprehensible and  adorable  Jehovah  as  our 
Father;  and  we  have  no  higher  joy  than  that 
which  springs  from  the  hope  of  being  one  day 
publicly  owned  by  him  as  his  children.  But 
until  every  vestige  of  the  flood  is  obliterated, 
and  the  Dead  Sea  has  ceased  to  perpetuate  the 


V 


o6  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

doom  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  the  lost 
angels  are  brought  forth  out  of  prison,  and  hell 
is  annihilated,  and  the  Bible  is  blotted  out  of 
existence,  we  cannot  forget  that  he  is  also  a 
righteous  Judge  and  an  almighty  King.  Our 
sympathies  prompt  us  to  weep  over  the  eternal 
destruction  of  so  large  a  portion  of  our  fellow- 
creatures;  and  we  are  ready  to  confess  that  we 
are  utterly  lost  in  attempting  to  explain  the  rea- 
sons why  the  race  were  permitted  to  fall,  and 
why,  having  determined  to  give  his  beloved 
Son  to  retrieve  the  dreadful  evils  of  the  apostacy, 
the  all-wise  and  merciful  God  was  not  pleased 
to  extend  the  benefits  of  redemption  to  the  whole 
human  family.  But  our  inability  to  unfold  his 
secret  purposes,  furnishes  us  with  no  ground  to 
cavil  at  his  dispensations.  Nor,  unfathomable 
as  the  transaction  is  to  our  feeble  faculties,  are 
we  able  to  detect  in  it  aught  that  is  "  tyrannical" 
or  "unjust."  So  far  from  it,  we  adore  with 
gratitude  unspeakable,  the  matchless  love  which, 
instead  of  suffering  us  all  to  perish,  a  procedure 
which  would  have  left  the  justice  of  God  untar- 
nished, provided  an  atoning  sacrifice  of  bound- 
less worth,  and  brought  up  millions  of  the  race 


NOT  DEROGATORY  TO  GOD.  37 

from  the  confines  of  hell  to  the  fruition  of  eter- 
nal blessedness.  The  character  of  Jehovah  is 
not  the  less  glorious  in  our  eyes,  because  in 
every  part  of  this  stupendous  plan,  we  see  it  to 
be  "glorious  in  holiness"  as  well  as  in  mercy: 
nor  is  his  throne  the  less  attractive,  because  in 
the  voice  which  proceeds  from  it,  we  find  the 
xMajesty  of  a  God  blended  with  the  tenderness 
of  a  Father. 


o8  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 


DISCOURSE  II 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION    NOT    DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN. 

"  Paul  said  to  the  centurion  and  the  soldiers.  Except  these 
abide  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved." — Acts  xxvii.  31. 

Of  the  two  principal  objections  to  the  doc- 
trine of  election,  one  has  immediate  respect  to 
God,  the  other  to  man.  The  former,  which 
alleges  that  the  doctrine  is  derogatory  to  God, 
has  been  considered:  the  latter,  which  affirms 
that  it  is  discouraging  to  man,  I  propose  to 
examine  now.  This  objection  may  be  stated  in 
the  following  form : — 

"  If  the  individuals  to  be  saved  have  been  se- 
lected, and  their  number  unchangeably  fixed  by  a 
divine  decree,  it  must  be  useless  for  men  to  con- 
cern themselves  about  the  question  of  their  own 
salvation.  If  they  are  of  the  number  of  the  elect, 
they  will  be  saved  whether  they  exert  them- 
selves to  this  end  or  not;  if  they  are  not,  no  ef- 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  39 

forts  of  their  own  can  be  of  any  avail.  The 
omnipotent  decree  renders  all  human  agency 
superfluous  in  the  one  case,  and  fruitless  in  the 
other.  We  have,  therefore,  but  to  fold  our 
arms  and  await  the  issues  to  which  we  are  sev- 
erally appointed." 

There  are  a  number  of  points  embraced  in 
this  objection,  but  they  may  be  discussed  col- 
lectively. I  think  it  can  be  shown  that  it  pro 
ceeds  upon  a  serious  misconception  of  the  doc- 
trine, and  that  no  such  consequences  as  are  here 
specified,  are  fairly  chargeable  upon  it.  There 
are  various  lines  of  argument  by  which  the  dif- 
ficulty might  be  met.  I  shall  meet  it  by  ob- 
serving, 

First,  That  God  has  provided  an  atonement- 
the  value  of  which,  in  itself  considered,  is  suf- 
ficient for  the  sins  of  all  mankind. 

I  speak  not  now  of  the  purpose  of  God  in  re- 
spect to  the  application  of  redemption.  The 
Scriptures  do  certainly  teach,  that  Christ  died  as 
the  substitute  and  surety  of  his  own  people,  that 
is,  of  the  people  given  him  by  the  Father — that 
he  "laid  down  his  life  for  the  sheep" — and  that 
his  blood  shall  be  applied  to  all  those  included 


40  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

in  the  covenant  of  grace.  But  I  speak  of  the 
intrinsic  worth  of  his  atonement,  when  I  ascribe 
to  it  a  value  adequate  to  the  redemption  of  all 
mankind.  The  proof  of  this  lies  in  the  fact,  that 
by  reason  of  the  union  in  his  person  of  the  di- 
vine and  human  natures,  an  infinite  value  must 
attach  to  his  sufferings.  A  very  few  theolo- 
gians, adopting  what  has  been  styled  the  Geth- 
semane  view  of  the  atonement,  have  maintained 
that  there  was  an  exact  commercial  equivalency 
between  his  sufferings  and  the  sins  of  his  people, 
so  that  if  there  had  been  one  more  sinner  to  be 
redeemed,  his  sufferings  must  have  been  increased 
in  a  corresponding  degree.  But  this  scheme 
the  great  body  of  Calvinistic  divines  have  re- 
jected with  abhorrence.  They  have  concurred 
generally  in  the  sentiment,  that  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  would  be  sufficient,  had  it  pleased  the 
Father  so  to  extend  the  benefits  of  redemption, 
to  expiate  the  sins  of  every  individual  of  our 
race.  I  may  be  allowed  to  quote  two  eminent 
authorities  on  this  subject.  The  first  is  Dr, 
Owen :  "  There  is  a  sense  in  which  Christ  may 
be  said  to  die  for  all  and  the  whole  world.  His 
death  was  of  sufficient  dignity  to  have  been 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  41 

made  a  ransom  for  all  the  sins  of  every  one  in 
the  world;  and  on  this  internal  sufficiency  is 
grounded  the  universality  of  the  gospel  offers."* 
The  other  is  the  venerable  Synod  of  Dort,  which 
represented,  two  hundred  years  ago,  the  whole 
body  of  Calvinistic  churches,  (the  church  of 
England  included:)  "The  death  of  the  Son  of 
God  is  a  single  and  most  perfect  sacrifice  and 
satisfaction  for  sins,  of  infinite  value  and  price, 
abundantly  sufficient  to  expiate  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world."  And,  again:  "Because  many 
wTho  are  called  by  the  gospel,  do  not  repent  nor 
believe  in  Christ,  but  perish  in  unbelief;  this 
doth  not  arise  from  defect  or  insufficiency  of  the 
sacrifice  offered  by  Christ,  but  from  their  own 
fault."! 

Secondly.  All  men  are  authorized  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  benefits  of  this  atonement. 

They  are  offered  indiscriminately  to  all.  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature."  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth 
come  ye  to  the  waters."  "Whosoever  will,  let 
him  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."     "Look 

*  Display  of  Arminianism,  ch.  iar. 
\  Articles  of  the  Synod  of  Dort,  ch.  ii. 

A* 


42  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth."  Here  is  the  warrant  which  every  hu- 
man being  has  to  apply  to  Christ  for  salvation. 
And  the  warrant  is  the  same  to  all,  irrespective 
of  character  or  condition.  There  is  no  restric- 
tion of  the  invitation  to  one  part  of  the  race ; 
no  exclusion  of  another  part.  The  man  who 
rejects  it,  has  just  as  good  a  warrant  for  accept- 
ing as  the  man  who.  does  accept  it.  If  con- 
firmation of  this  were  wanting,  it  might  be  found 
in  the  fact  that  the  rejection  of  Christ  is  made 
a  damning  sin.  If  Christ  was  not  proposed  to 
men  as  a  Saviour — if  his  atonement  was  not  suf- 
ficient to  expiate  their  sins,  and  they  were  not 
authorized  to  avail  themselves  of  it,  they  could 
not  be  condemned  for  rejecting  him.  But  what 
saith  the  Scripture?  "He  that  believeth  and 
is  baptized,  shall  be  saved;  he  that  believeth 
not,  shall  be  damned."  It  is  no  sin  to  be  of  the 
number  of  the  non-elect.  We  nowhere  read  of 
a  sinner's  being  condemned  for  not  having  been 
chosen  to  eternal  life.  "  This  is  the  condemna- 
tion, that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men 
loved  darkness  rather  than  light  because  their 
deeds  were  evil."     The  condemnation  is  that 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  43 

"when  Christ  calls,  they  refuse;  when  he 
stretches  out  his  hands,  they  will  not  regard  " — 
they  "will  not  come  to  him  that  they  may  have 
life." 

Thirdly.  Even  this  is  not  all.  God  has  not 
only  provided  a  system  of  salvation  of  which  all 
men  are  authorized  and  commanded  to  avail 
themselves ;  He  has  in  many  ways  displayed  his 
tender  concern  for  their  spiritual  welfare.  "As 
I  live,"  he  says,  "I  have  no  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn 
from  his  way  and  live.  Turn  ye,  turn  ye  from 
your  evil  ways :  for  why  will  ye  die  ?"  To  this 
solemn  asseveration  and  appeal,  he  has  added 
other  most  convincing  evidences  of  his  regard 
for  our  happiness.  He  has  given  us  the  Bible, 
the  Sabbath,  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  the 
ordinances  of  the  sanctuary,  the  privilege  of 
prayer,  the  ministrations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
mercies  and  the  chastisements  of  his  providence, 
and  by  all  these  and  other  agencies  he  has  hedged 
up,  as  it  were,  the  way  to  destruction  and  made 
it  impossible  for  men  (in  a  Christian  land)  to 
perish,  except  they  perish  wilfully.  This  whole 
array  of  means,  supplied  by  his  providence  and 


44  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

grace,  attests  his  paternal  concern  for  his  crea- 
tures, and  leaves  those  who  refuse  to  come  to 
the  marriage-supper  of  his  Son,  without  the 
least  excuse. 

To  these  three  propositions,  which  really  cover 
the  whole  ground,  the  objector  will  probably 
answer  as  follows:  "Allowing  that  the  pro- 
vision revealed  in  the  gospel  is  sufficient  in  itself 
for  the  necessities  of  all  men,  and  that  all  are 
authorized  to  embrace  it ;  still,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  only  the  elect  will  embrace  it,  and  unless 
we  know  ourselves  to  be  of  that  number,  we  can 
have  no  motive  to  apply  for  it."  On  this  I  re- 
mark, 

1.  That  as  the  gospel  proffers  salvation  to  all 
men,  and  as  it  addresses  them,  not  as  elect  or 
non-elect,  but  simply  as  sinners,  no  sinner  has 
any  fight  to  assume  that  he  is  not  embraced  in 
the  divine  purpose  of  mercy.  Whether  he  is 
or  not,  is  a  point  which  he  can  learn  only  from 
the  result.  To  assume  either  the  affirmative  or 
negative  of  the  question,  is  to  be  guilty  of  crimi- 
nal presumption.  For  what  right  has  any  crea- 
ture to  challenge  to  himself  a  knowledge  of  the 
secret  purposes  of  God?     And  what  greater  in- 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  45 

fatuation  can  a  man  display  than  to  regulate  his 
conduct  on  the  most  important  of  all  subjects, 
by  a  pretended  knowledge  of  the  divine  decrees, 
or  a  random  conjecture  as  to  the  allotment  they 
assign  to  him?  These  decrees  are  not  the  rule 
of  our  duty.  We  are  not  held  responsible  for 
not  conforming  to  them.  We  are  not  bound  to 
act  with  the  least  reference  to  them,  nor  even 
to  know  what  they  are.  So  far  from  it,  we  can- 
not by  all  our  searching  find  them  out.  "  Secret 
things  belong  unto  God :  those  which  are  re- 
vealed belong  to  us  and  to  our  children."  For 
complying  with  the  written  law,  we  are  respon- 
sible. If  we  disobey  or  neglect  that,  it  is  at  our 
peril.  The  word  of  God  shows  us  at  once  our 
ruin  and  our  remedy:  condemns  us  as  sinners,  and 
offers  us  a  Saviour.  With  this,  and  this  alone, 
we  have  to  do.  Why  should  we  abandon  a 
known  for  an  unknown  rule ;  the  standard  which 
God  has  placed  in  our  hands,  and  on  our  confor- 
mity to  which  he  has  suspended  our  salvation, 
for  a  standard  which  our  faculties  can  no  more 
discover  than  they  can  comprehend  the  divine 
infinitude,  and  which  God  has  nowhere  required 
us  to  make  the  guide  of  our  conduct  ? 


\S 


46 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 


2.  Let  it  be  particularly  noted,  that  while  the 
secret  purposes  of  God  are  effectually  concealed 
from  us,  we  are  perfectly  sure  that  there  is  no- 
thing in  the  decree  of  election  which  forbids  or 
prevents  men  from  acceding  to  the  terms  of 
the  gospel. 

There  is  a  tone  of  remark  sometimes  indulged 
in  on  this  subject,  which  imports  that  God  ex- 
erts a  positive  influence  upon  the  minds  of  a 
portion  of  our  race,  to  prevent  their  acceptance 
of  the  gospel  offer.  But  this  is  certainly  not 
the  case.  The  contrary  is  apparent  from  what 
has  been  already  stated  respecting  the  atone- 
ment and  the  universal  proclamation  of  mercy. 
It  is  a  gross  imputation  upon  the  character  of 
the  Deity,  to  suppose  that  he  would  offer  sal- 
vation to  men  and  press  it  upon  them  in  every 
form  of  argument  and  expostulation,  and  at  the 
same  time  secretly  restrain  them  from  accepting 
it.  It  is  not  denied  that  He  may  withdraw  his 
Spirit  entirely  from  obdurate  and  impious  sin- 
ners, and  suffer  them,  as  a  punishment,  to  be- 
come still  more  hardened  under  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel.  Yet  even  in  this  case,  as  there 
is  reason  to  believe,  he  does  but  leave  them  to 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  47 


themselves.  The  rejection  of  Christ  is  a  sin; 
and  to  allege  that  the  divine  agency  is  efficiently 
put  forth  to  constrain  men  to  reject  Christ,  is 
to  make  God  the  author  of  sin.  But  "He  can- 
not be  tempted  with  evil,  neither  tempteth  He 
any  man."  If  men  will  not  believe  and  repent 
— if  they  will  not  "  come  to  Christ,  that  they 
may  have  life  " — it  is  not  a  divine  influence,  but 
their  own  depravity  which  prevents.  This  is 
readily  admitted  by  all  who  have  been  brought 
to  repentance,  as  it  would  be  also  by  those  wh,o 
are  still  in  their  sins,  if  they  would  carefully 
examine  their  own  hearts.  The  importance  of 
this  point  will  appear  more  clearly  in  connexion 
with  my  next  observation,  viz. 

3.  That  the  certainty  of  the  result,  to  the 
eye  of  God,  in  respect  to  every  individual  of 
our  race,  compromises  no  one's  freedom,  and 
furnishes  no  ground  for  discouragement,  and 
no  excuse  for  unbelief. 

That  the  result  is  pre-determined  in  respect 
to  every  individual,  may  be  proved  both  by  rea- 
son and  scripture.  A  God  of  infinite  wisdom, 
goodness,  power,  and  holiness,  could  not  under- 
take to  govern  the  universe  without   a  plan; 


48 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 


and  no  plan  would  be  complete  or  exempt  from 
liability  to  failure,  which  did  not  embrace  the 
entire  agency  of  every  rational  being.  "  Known 
unto  God  are  all  his  works  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world;"  for  "he  worketh  all  things  after 
the  counsel  of  his  own  will."  How  these  two 
things  may  consist  together,  the  sovereignty  of 
God,  working  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  and  the  freedom  of  man,  is  the  great 
problem  which  has  exercised  the  profoundest 
minds  of  every  age,  and  which  is  still  as  far 
from  being  solved  as  ever.  After  pursuing  the 
investigation  to  a  certain  point,  we  come  to  a 
chasm  which  the  human  intellect  cannot  bridge 
over.  That  illustrious  metaphysician,  Mr. 
Locke,  expresses  himself  in  the  following  modest 
and  candid  manner  on  this  subject: — "If  you 
will  argue  for  or  against  liberty  from  conse- 
quences, I  will  not  undertake  to  answer  you. 
For  I  own  freely  to  you  the  weakness  of  my 
understanding,  that  though  it  be  unquestionable 
that  there  is  omnipotence  and  omniscience  in 
God,  our  Maker,  and  I  cannot  have  a  clearer 
perception  of  any  thing  than  that  I  am  free,  yet 
I  cannot  make  freedom  in  man  consistent  with 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  49 

omnipotence  and  omniscience  in  God;  though  I 
am  as  fully  persuaded  of  both,  as  of  any  truths 
I  most  firmly  assent  to,  And  therefore  I  have 
long  since  given  off  the  consideration  of  that 
question,  resolving  all  into  this  short  conclusion, 
That  if  it  be  possible  for  God  to  make  a  free 
agent,  then  man  is  free,  though  I  see  not  the 
way  of  it."  Our  Confession  of  Faith,  while 
asserting  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  decrees,  re- 
jects the  consequences  falsely  charged  upon  that 
doctrine,  one  of  which  is,  that  it  is  incompatible 
with  human  liberty.  "  God,  from  all  eternity, 
did  by  the  most  wise  and  holy  counsel  of  his 
own  will,  freely  and  unchangeably  ordain  what- 
soever comes  to  pass ;  yet  so  as  thereby  neither 
is  God  the  author  of  sin,  nor  is  violence  offered 
to  the  will  of  the  creatures,  nor  is  the  liberty  or 
contingency  of  second  causes  taken  away,  but 
rather  established."  (Chap.  iii.  1.)  Our  ina- 
bility to  harmonize  the  divine  sovereignty  and 
his  fore-ordination  of  all  things,  with  man's  free- 
dom, is  no  reason  for  rejecting  either  of  these 
doctrines.  We  are  not  required  to  reconcile 
them ;  but  since  they  are  both  propounded  to  us 
on  adequate  evidence,  we  are  required  to  believe 
5 


50  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

them.  As  regardsour  freedom,  the  appeal  may 
be  safely  made  to  every  man's  consciousness. 
Freedom  consists  essentially  in  a  power  to  will 
what,  at  the  time  and  on  the  whole,  appears  to 
us  best  to  be  chosen.  Is  not  every  individual 
conscious  that  he  possesses  and  is  constantly  ex- 
ercising this  power?  The  believer  wills  to 
take  God  as  his  portion,  because  this  appears  to 
him  his  wisest  and  best  course.  So  he  puts 
forth  successive  volitions  to  repent  of  his  sins, 
to  trust  in  Christ,  to  pray,  to  minister  to  the 
temporal  or  spiritual  welfare  of  his  fellow-crea- 
tures, to  cast  his  contributions  into  the  treasury 
of  the  Lord ;  because  all  these  duties  appear  to 
him  to  be  for  the  best— he  prefers  doing  these 
diings  to  any  thing  else.  He  is  conscious  that 
he  acts  with  perfect  freedom.  And  this  is  the 
more  observable,  because  we  know  from  scrip- 
ture that  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  con- 
cerned in  the  production  of  all  holy  volitions 
and  gracious  exercises.  No  less  conscious  is 
the  unbeliever  of  acting  freely  in  refusing  to 
come  to  Christ.  He  may,  indeed,  act  counter  to 
his  deliberate  judgment  and  his  general  convic- 
tions of  duty,  but  he  does  what,  at  the  time,  he 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  51 

believes  to  be  the  best — bejtets  as  he  chooses — 
he  "does  what  he  likes."  You  may  listen  to  a 
sermon  on  the  duty  of  immediate  repentance. 
Your  reason  may  be  convinced,  and  your  con- 
science may  bid  you  obey  the  divine  command ; 
and  yet  you  may,  as  you  retire  from  the  sanc- 
tuary, decide  that  you  will  not  now  repent,  or, 
which  is  the  same  thing,  that  you  will  hold  the 
subject  under  consideration  for  the  present. 
You  may  listen  here  to  one  of  our  Saviour's 
gracious  invitations,  and  as  his  love  and  mercy 
are  unveiled,  and  the  glorious  salvation  he  prof- 
fers you  is  described,  you  may  be  "almost  per- 
suaded to  be  a  Christian;"  and  yet  you  may,  on 
the  whole,  conclude  that  another  season  will 
answer  better,  and  so  continue  in  your  sins. 
Now  in  these  and  all  similar  cases,  you  have 
the  best  possible  evidence,  the  evidence  of  con- 
sciousness, that  you  are  acting  without  con- 
straint— you  are  doing  what  you  choose  to  do. 
And  this  choice,  as  was  proved  under  the  last 
head,  cannot  be  referred  to  any  influence  which 
God  exerts  upon  you.  He  does  not  incline  you 
to  make  these  wrong  decisions — decisions  re- 
peated every  time  you  come  to  the  sanctuary. 


52       THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

So  far  from  it,  he  warns. jou  against  it.  With 
mingled  severity  and  tenderness,  he  expostu- 
lates with  you,  and  bids  you  choose  life  and  not 
death.  It  is  not  He  who  holds  you  back  when 
you  would  follow  the  dictates  of  your  judgment 
and  conscience,  but  those  corrupt,  perverse  ap- 
petites and  passions  which  blind  you  to  religion 
and  chain  }~ou  to  the  world.  Nothing,  there- 
fore, could  be  more  unreasonable  than  to  fall 
back  upon  the  unknown  purposes  of  God,  as  an 
apology  for  continuing  in  sin ;  or  to  plead  the 
fact  that  there  are  such  purposes  as  a  ground  of 
discouragement  in  seeking  your  salvation.  You 
have  an  irrefragable  answer  to  all  suggestions 
of  this  kind  in  your  own  breast ;  for  you  know 
that  all  you  do,  you  do  freely.  That  all  your 
volitions  should  be  comprised  in  God's  plan, 
cannot  affect  your  freedom ;  they  are  as  free  as 
though  there  were  no  such  plan  in  existence. 

And  this  leads  to  another  observation  on  this 
topic.  If,  as  wTe  maintain,  God  exerts  no  effi- 
cient agency  in  producing  the  sinful  volitions  of 
men,  then  the  objection  under  consideration  lies 
as  well  against  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  fore- 
knowledge as  against  the  doctrine  of  decrees. 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  53 

The  certainty  of  the  result,  it  is  alleged,  makes 
all  effort  useless.  Reserving  a  further  answer 
to  this  difficulty  until  we  come  to  the  next  head, 
I  would  observe  here,  that  if  we  admit,  as  all 
Christians  do,  simply  the  foreknowledge  of  the 
Deity,  we  concede  the  pre-certainty  of  all  events 
to  Him.  He  must  have  known  from  eternity, 
who  would  under  the  renewing  influences  of  his 
Spirit  embrace  the  gospel,  and  who  would  re- 
ject it,  and  all  the  circumstances  pertaining  to 
each  particular  case.  But  how  can  this  fact 
interfere  with  our  liberty  ?  How  can  it  modify 
our  conduct?  How  can  it  affect  in  any  way 
our  duties  and  responsibilities?  If  this  fore- 
knowledge was  ours — if  we  were  certain  what 
was  to  be  our  future  conduct  with  all  its  conse- 
quences— the  case  would  be  widely  altered. 
But  how  can  this  certainty  in  God's  mind  influ- 
ence us ;  or  with  wThat  propriety  can  we  appeal 
to  it  in  deciding  questions  of  duty? 

There  never  was  a  battle  fought,  the  issue  of 
which  was  not  as  certain  to  God  before  as  after 
it  ?  Did  this  affect  the  plans  or  exertions  of  the 
hostile  armies?  The  battle  of  New-Orleans 
took  place  a  fortnight  after  the  plenipotentiaries 
5* 


54  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

of  the  two  powers  had  signed  a  treaty  of  peace. 
This  fact  was  known  not  only  to  the  Supreme 
Being,  but  to  thousands  of  people  in  Europe. 
But  did  it  have  any  influence  upon  the  troops 
engaged  in  that  contest?  The  awful  disaster 
which  overwhelmed  one  of  our  packet-ships 
near  Liverpool  a  fewT  months  since,  was  cer- 
tainly known  to  Omniscience  before  it  occurred ; 
but  had  his  knowledge  of  it  any  influence  upon 
the  persons  who  embarked  in  that  vessel  ?  All 
that  is  to  occur  in  Europe  during  the  next  six 
months,  is  known  to  God.  He  might,  if  he  saw 
fit,  reveal  it  to  you.  Would  your  knowledge 
of  it,  supposing  you  kept  it  to  yourself,  trench 
upon  the  liberty  of  a  single  individual  there,  or 
modify  his  conduct  in  the  slightest  degree?  It 
seems  almost  puerile  to  multiply  illustrations  of 
this  point.  But  men  seem  to  ascribe  I  know 
not  what  mysterious  and  malign  influence  to  the 
fact  that  their  conduct  is  fore-known  to  God : 
and  to  imagine  that  they  are  on  this  ground  less 
free  than  they  would  otherwise  be  in  respect  to 
their  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the  gospel. 
I  trust  the  fallacy  of  this  impression  has  been 
made  apparent  to  every  reader :  it  will  be  still 
farther  exposed  as  we  proceed. 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  55 

4.  As  the  decree  of  election  leaves  the  free- 
dom of  man  unimpaired,  so  it  not  only  permits 
bid  requires  the  use  of  means  in  securing  our 
salvation. 

"  If  I  am  to  be  saved,  I  shall  be  saved ;  if  I  am 
to  be  lost,  I  shall  be  lost.  The  issue  is  settled 
by  a  Divine  decree,  and  my  own  exertions  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it."  This  is  a  sentiment 
frequently  uttered  by  men  who  are  not  disposed 
to  give  up  their  sins  and  make  their  peace  with 
God.  It  is  sometimes  entertained  also,  by  per- 
sons of  a  more  serious  turn,  who  really  believe 
that  the  doctrine  of  election  has  interposed  some 
new  obstacle  in  the  way  of  their  salvation,  and 
that  it  discountenances  all  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  sinner. 

This  objection  has  already  been  answered. 
It  has  been  shown  that  a  sufficient  provision 
has  been  made  for  the  wants  of  the  world — 
that  all  mankind  are  authorized  and  even  com- 
manded to  avail  themselves  of  it — and  that  God 
has  manifested  his  concern  for  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  our  race,  in  the  most  unequivocal  and 
affecting  methods — that  no  individual  has  a 
right  to  assume  that  he  is  of  the  number  of  the 


56  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

non-elect,  or  to  regulate  his  conduct  in  any  par- 
ticular by  a  pretended  regard  to  the  secret  pur- 
poses of  God — that  there  is  nothing  in  the  de- 
cree of  election  which  forbids  or  prevents  men 
from  acceding  to  the  terms  of  the  gospel — and 
that  the  certainty  of  the  result  in  every  case, 
compromises  no  one's  freedom,  and  furnishes 
neither  any  ground  for  discouragement,  nor  any 
excuse  for  unbelief.  If  these  things  are  so, 
there  can  be  no  room  whatever  for  the  idea  that 
the  result  must  be  all  one,  whether  we  exert 
ourselves  to  secure  our  salvation  or  not— ra  sen- 
timent which  is  as  much  in  conflict  with  the 
whole  tenor  of  the  Bible,  as  it  is  likely  to  be 
fatal  to  those  who  entertain  it.  To  show  that 
our  doctrine  is  not  open  to  this  cavil,  let  it  be 
noted, 

That  the  Divine  decrees  embrace  not  only 
ends  but  means ;  and  that  both  in  temporal  and 
spiritual  things,  where  an  end  is  decreed,  the 
means  by  which  it  is  to  be  reached  or  accom- 
plished are  also  decreed. 

I  speak  of  '  temporal '  things  here,  because 
some  persons  appear  to  think  that  the  Divine 
decrees  are  restricted  to  spiritual  matters.    This 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  57 

is  so  far  from  being  a  correct  opinion,  that 
the  Scriptures  represent  all  events,  however 
trivial,  as  being  embraced  in  those  decrees. 
Reason  teaches  the  same  thing  ;  for  in  the  great 
concatenation  of  causes  and  effects,  trifling  and 
important  events  are  so  linked  together,  that  the 
omission  of  the  least  link  must  have  broken  the 
whole  chain.  If  the  captive  Israelites  are  to 
be  emancipated,  and  a  great  commonwealth 
founded,  the  freest  and  the  noblest  the  world 
had  ever  seen,  an  Egyptian  princess,  seeking 
her  own  recreation,  must  be  brought  down  to 
the  Nile,  just  at  the  place  and  at  the  time  to 
rescue  a  Hebrew  infant,  cast  upon  the  stream 
in  an  ark  of  bulrushes.  If  the  downfall  of  Rome 
is  to  be  averted,  the  decree  which  ensures  it 
must  no  less  include  the  cackling  of  the  geese 
on  the  Capitoline  Hill.  If  the  American  colo- 
nies are  to  become  an  independent  and  powerful 
Republic,  the  decree  which  ordains  it  must  no 
less  ordain  that  a  colonial  mother  shall  unwit- 
tingly reserve  her  beloved  son  to  become  the 
leader  of  their  armies  and  the  "  Father  of  his 
country,"  by  refusing  her  assent  to  his  accept- 
ing a  midshipman's  warrant  already  obtained 


58  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

for  him  in  the  British  Navy.  Every  harvest  is 
included  in  the  Divine  purposes;  but  not  the 
reaping  without  the  sowing ; — the  issue  of  every 
voyage,  but  not  the  gain  or  loss,  without  the 
building  and  fitting  out  of  the  ship  and  all  the 
skill  and  labour  demanded  by  the  enterprise. 
If  it  is  decreed  that  you  are  to  make  an  advan- 
tageous sale  of  goods,  it  is  no  less  decreed  that 
you  are  to  go  to  your  warehouse  and  show  your 
customer  the  goods,  and  agree  with  him  as  to 
the  terms.  If  it  is  decreed  that  you  are  to 
build  yourself  a  house,  it  is  equally  decreed  that 
you  are,  in  person  or  by  proxy,  to  purchase 
your  lot  and  make  the  requisite  contracts  with 
the  mechanics.  If  it  is  decreed  that  your  chil- 
dren are  to  receive  a  good  education,  it  is  no 
less  decreed  that  you  are  to  employ  suitable 
teachers.  All  this  is  readily  admitted.  It  is 
only  where  the  salvation  of  the  soul  is  con- 
cerned, that  men  are  chargeable  with  the  folly 
and  presumption  of  supposing  that  a  Divine  de- 
cree respecting  the  end,  renders  all  use  of  means 
on  their  part  nugatory.  On  this  subject  alone 
are  they  disposed  to  substitute  the  secret  pur- 
poses of  God  for  his  revealed  will  (revealed 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  59 

whether  in  his  word  or  by  his  providence,)  as 
their  rule  of  duty.  On  other  subjects  they  obey 
the  dictates  of  that  common  sense  which  was 
displayed  by  the  companions  of  the  apostle 
Paul  in  his  shipwreck.  After  they  had  been 
driving  about  in  the  storm  for  ( many  days,'  he 
said  to  them,  "  There  shall  be  no  loss  of  any 
man's  life  among  you,  but  of  the  ship.  For 
there  stood  by  me  this  night,  the  angel  of  God, 
whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve,  saying,  Fear 
not,  Paul,  thou  must  be  brought  before  Cesar; 
and  lo,  God  hath  given  thee  all  them  that  sail 
with  thee."  (Acts  xxvii.  22—24.)  This  was 
certainly,  if  the  case  could  be,  an  assurance  of 
preservation  which  would  have  warranted  them 
in  disregarding  all  means,  and  trusting  solely 
to  the  Divine  purpose  for  deliverance.  But 
when,  on  the  ship's  striking,  the  apostle  saw 
some  of  the  sailors  about  getting  into  the  boat 
to  escape  from  the  vessel,  he  said  to  the  centu- 
rion and  the  soldiers,  '  Except  these  abide  in 
the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved.'  In  other  words, 
their  deliverance  was  decreed ;  but  it  was  de- 
creed in  connection  ivith  the  requisite  rrn  ms. 
And  believing  this,  the  men  remained  in  the 


60  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

ship.  Precisely  in  the  same  way,  salvation  is 
decreed,  but  the  decree  embraces  in  every  in- 
stance the  means  by  which  it  is  to  be  effected.  It 
is  not  the  mere  salvation  of  a  sinner  which  is  de- 
creed, but  with  this,  all  the  agencies  which  lead 
to  it.  The  Divine  purpose  takes  in  his  parentage, 
birth,  residence,  education,  companions,  business, 
successes,  misfortunes,  health,  sicknesses,  reli- 
gious advantages,  and  all  the  influences  by  which 
his  character  and  course  of  life  are  shaped  and 
moulded.  Men,  I  repeat  it,  are  not  simply  chosen 
to  salvation;  they  are  "chosen  to  salvation 
through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of 
the  truth."  Faith  and  repentance  are  as  much  a 
part  of  the  decree  as  salvation.  God  has  given 
us  his  word,  the  Sabbath,  the  ministry,  the  pri- 
vilege of  prayer,  and  other  blessings,  as  means 
of  grace — as  the  appointed  channels  through 
which  he  ordinarily  bestows  salvation.  These 
means  must  be  used.  The  truth  must  be  brought 
into  contact  with  men's  minds :  it  must  be  be- 
lieved and  obeyed.  God  had  "  much  people  "  in 
Corinth.  How  did  he  save  them?  By  send- 
ing Paul  to  preach  to  them.  He  had  a  people 
in  Samaria,  and  Philip  must  needs  go  and  preach 
there.     He  had  determined  to  save  Cornelius 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  6l 

and  Peter  must  go  down  to  Cesarea  to  tell  him 
and  his  household  i  all  things  that  were  com- 
manded him  of  God,'  He  had  a  people  among 
us,  and  he  sent  them  the  gospel,  and  they  gave 
heed  to  it  and  are  saved.  It  was,  indeed,  de- 
creed that  they  should  give  heed  to  it ;  but  this 
they  did  not  and  could  not  know  beforehand. 
They  felt  that  it  was  their  duty  to  do  it,  for 
the  Divine  command  was  too  explicit  to  be  mis- 
taken; and,  acting  as  freely  as  they  had  ever 
done  in  rejecting  Christ,  they  f  submitted  them- 
selves to  the  righteousness  of  God,'  and  accepted 
his  proffered  mercy. 

This  is  the  duty  of  every  individual  who 
is  yet  out  of  Christ.  There  is  not  one  of  you 
that  has  not  all  the  warrant  and  all  the  encou- 
ragement to  repent  and  believe  in  Christ,  which 
they  had,  prior  to  their  conversion,  who  actu- 
ally have  repented  and  believed.  It  was  not 
the  unrevealed  decrees  of  God  on  which  they 
proceeded,  but  his  written  word.  The  same  Sa- 
viour invites  you  who  invited  them:  the  same 
God  commands  you ;  the  same  pardon  is  ten- 
dered you ;  the  same  heaven  and  hell  are  set  be- 
fore you.  If  you  are  blind,  so  were  they.  If 
6 


62  THE  DOCTRIXE  OF  ELECTION 

you  are  impotent,  so  were  they.  If  you  are 
dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  so  were  they.  But 
they  called  upon  God  for  help,  and  so  may  you. 
They  besought  the  Holy  Spirit  to  give  them 
light,  and  strength,  and  life — to  deliver  them 
from  bondage,  work  repentance  in  their  hearts, 
and  lead  them  to  Christ — and  so  may  you.  Do 
vou  allege  that  God  heard  their  prayers,  but 
you  do  not  know  that  he  would  hear  yours? 
They  had  no  more  assurance  on  this  point,  be- 
fore they  tried  it,  than  you  have — and  this,  by 
the  way,  is  assurance  enough.  Do  you  urge 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  assisted  them  and  did  for 
them  all  they  wanted  ?  You  have  just  as  much 
ground  to  hope  that  he  will  assist  you,  as  they 
had  to  expect  his  aid. — What,_then,  hinders 
your  salvation?  "7  do  not  knoiu  that  I  am 
elected"  Do  you  know  that  you  are  to  reach 
your  house  after  this  service,  and  do  you  mean 
to  remain  here  until  you  have  some  assurance 
of  it?  Do  you  know  whether  this  is  to  be  a 
lucrative  or  a  losing  week  in  your  business,  and 
will  you  remain  at  home  until  you  ascertain? 
Did  you  know,  the  last  time  you  had  a  serious 
illness,  whether  you  were  to  recover,  and  did  you 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  63 

forego  all  means  until  it  was  revealed  to  you  that 
you  were  to  get  well  ?  Why  should  you  use 
means  to  prolong  your  natural  life,  when  the  pe- 
riod of  its  duration  is  unalterably  fixed?  "  His 
days  are  determined,  the  number  of  his  months 
are  with  thee,  thou  hast  appointed  his  bounds 
that  he  cannot  pass."  Why  not  say,  when  sick, 
c  If  I  am  to  live,  I  shall  live,  whatever  I  leave 
undone ;  and  if  I  am  to  die,  I  shall  die,  what- 
ever I  may  do.'  The  question  of  your  salva- 
tion is  not  more  irrevocably  settled  than  is  the 
erm  of  your  natural  life;  yet  in  this  case  you 
will  neglect  no  means  to  preserve  life ;  in  that 
you  will  plead  that  there  is  a  "  decree,"  and 
refuse  all  means.  Is  this  conduct  defensible 
either  at  the  bar  of  Scripture  or  reason? 

What  God  has  decreed  concerning  us  we 
shall  not  know  until  we  stand  before  him-  But 
this  we  do  know,  that  he  offers  us  salvation, 
and  commands  all  men  every  where  to  accept 
of  it  under  penalty  of  eternal  death,  and  that 
he  exerts  no  influence  upon  us  to  prevent  our 
complying  with  this  requirement.  Does  it  be- 
come us,  in  these  circumstances,  virtually  to 
say  to  the  Supreme  Being  that  he  has  not  done 


64 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 


enough  for  our  salvation — that  although  he  sent 
his  only-begotten  Son  to  die  for  us,  and  offers 
us  an  interest  in  his  precious  blood  without  mo- 
ney and  without  price,  we  will  not  receive  him 
as  our  Saviour  unless  He  first  places  in  our 
hands  the  Book  of  Life,  and  lets  us  turn  over 
its  leaves  to  see  if  our  names  are  there?  It 
might  seem  as  though  a  bare  possibility  of 
escaping  eternal  misery  and  securing  a  place  in 
heaven,  would  be  sufficient  to  put  every  one 
upon  the  most  earnest  and  untiring  exertions — 
that  nothing  would  be  omitted  which  promised 
to  contribute  in  the  slightest  degree  to  a  result 
so  vitally  connected  with  our  everlasting  well- 
being.  People  who  are  in  a  burning  house  or 
a  sinking  ship,  are  not  in  the  habit  of  waiting 
for  a  revelation  from  heaven  to  assure  them  that 
they  shall  not  perish,  but  eagerly  avail  them- 
selves of  any  expedients,  even  the  most  despe- 
rate, which  may  hold  out  the  slightest  hope  of 
deliverance.  It  is  only  where  the  soul  and  eter- 
nity are  concerned,  that  men  would  require  God 
to  put  into  their  hands  a  title-deed  to  paradise 
as  the  condition  on  which  they  will  consent  to 
exert  themselves  for  their  own  salvation — as 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  65 

though  the  Creator  and  not  themselves  were  the 
obliged  party  in  the  case. 

Individuals  who  in  this  way  set  both  the  Bi- 
ble and  common  sense  at  defiance,  and  whose 
conduct  in  all  secular  transactions  condemn? 
their  conduct  on  this  subject,  certainly  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  they  are  likely  to  be 
saved.  God  has  authorized  no  man  to  expect  / 
salvation,  who  will  not  use  the  means  of  grace 
with  all  diligence  and  prayer.  Salvation  is  be- 
stowed freely;  but  it  is  not  usually  bestowed 
without  being  sought.  If  it  is  not  worth  seek- 
ing, it  is  not  worth  havmg.  And  for  any  man 
to  allege  that  a  divine  decree  has  precluded  him 
from  seeking  it,  or  that  it  is  not  offered  him  in 
the  Bible  in  good  faith,  is  simply  untrue.  If 
he  will  attend  to  what  passes  in  his  own  mind 
when  he  is  listening  to  the  admonitions  or  invi- 
tations of  the  gospel,  he  will  rind  that  the  influ- 
ence which  holds  him  back  is  an  influence  from 
within,  not  from  above.  Nor  can  he  plead  in 
answer  to  this,  the  want  of  ability  to  comply 
with  the  divine  commands.  This  plea  is  both  im- 
pertinent and  irreverent,  unless  he  has  a  sincere 
desire  to  obey  those  commands,  and  is  actually 


66  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

endeavouring  to  comply  with  them  as  far  as  he 
can.  That  regeneration  is  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  that  "no  man  can  come  to 
Christ  except  the  Father  draw  him,"  is  most 
true.  But  there  are  some  things  which  every 
man  can  do  towards  his  own  salvation,  and 
which  of  course  he  is  bound  to  do.  He  can  as 
well  employ  his  powers  and  faculties  upon  the 
subject  of  religion,  as  upon  any  other  subject. 
He  can  study  the  scriptures  as  well  as  other 
books.  He  can  pray.  He  can  come  to  the 
sanctuary  twice  on  the  Sabbath,  and  spend  the 
rest  of  the  day  in  profitable  reading,  reflection, 
self-examination,  and  prayer.  He  can  ordina- 
rily attend  lectures  or  prayer-meetings  during 
the  week;  he  can  make  conscience  of  putting 
off  his  sins;  he  can  watch  against  his  evil  tem- 
pers; he  can  be  more  circumspect  in  his  conduct, 
more  faithful  in  the  performance  of  his  duties ; 
he  can  avoid  those  scenes  and  associations  which 
are  most  hostile  to  seriousness  of  mind,  and  seek 
those  which  will  foster  thoughtfulness,  and 
strengthen  him  in  turning  from  sin  to  holiness. 
All  this,  and  more  than  this,  he  can  do,  and 
God  requires  it  of  him.     "Search  the  scrip- 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  67 

tures."  "Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and 
the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him 
return  to  the  Lord,  who  will  have  mercy  upon 
him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  par- 
don." "  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive ;  seek,  and  ye 
shall  find  ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you."  Now  unless  a  man  is  doing  these  things, 
unless  he  is  "striving  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,"  can  he  with  any  decency  allege,  as  an 
excuse  for  his  impenitence,  that  he  has  no  ability 
to  comply  with  God's  commands?  How  or 
when  does  he  expect  to  receive  ability?  It  is 
in  the  path  of  duty  that  God  meets  and  helps 
his  creatures.  "Work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  who  work- 
eth  in  you  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  plea- 
sure." It  is  the  great  incentive  and  encourage- 
ment we  have  to  seek  salvation,  that  in  the 
humble  and  prayerful  use  of  the  means  of  grace 
we  may  expect  to  receive  help  from  above. 
"  Then  shall  ye  know,  if  ye  follow  on  to  know 
the  Lord."  If  we  follow  the  light  we  have, 
we  shall  have  more.  If  we  use  the  strength 
we  have,  it  will  be  increased. 

Sincere  inquirers  after  the  truth,  who  are 


63  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

disposed  to  do  what  has  now  been  hinted  at — 
who  will  forego  all  cavilling  and  take  the  word 
of  God  as  their  guide — so  far  from  considering 
the  doctrine  of  election  as  a  ground  of  dis- 
couragement, should  regard  it  as  a  source  of 
hope  and  confidence.  Indeed,  this  is  the  only 
proper  light  in  which  it  can  be  viewed ;  for  this 
doctrine  alone  lays  a  foundation  for  the  salva- 
tion of  any  of  our  race ;  if  none  were  chosen 
to  eternal  life,  none  would  be  saved.  And 
those  who  are  chosen,  are  ordinarily  saved  in 
the  way  or  by  the  process  just  described.  They 
are  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and 
made  to  feel  its  •  importance :  there  springs  up 
in  their  breasts  a  desire  to  '  win  Christ  and  be 
found  in  him ; '  they  are  disposed  to  renounce 
the  world,  to  'put  away  their  sins  by  repent- 
ance and  their  iniquities  by  turning  unto  God ; ' 
they  begin,  therefore,  to  seek  in  earnest  an  in- 
terest in  the  Saviour,  by  a  conscientious  and 
prayerful  use  of  the  means  of  grace,  until  they 
are  at  length  enabled  to  receive  and  rest  upon 
Christ  as  he  is  freely  offered  them  in  the  gos- 
pel. In  all  this,  from  first  to  last,  although 
they  are  conscious,  and,  from  the  nature  of  the 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  69 

human  mind,  can  be  conscious,  only  of  their 
own  exercises,  they  are  under  the  gentle  influ- 
ences of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  He  who 
awakened  their  self-reproaches  and  their  dissatis- 
faction with  the  world,  who  made  them  willing 
to  renounce  their  sins,  who  disposed  them  to 
frequent  the  sanctuary,  to  read  the  Bible,  and 
to  address  their  importunate  prayers  to  God, 
and  who  constrained  them  to  come  as  helpless, 
polluted,  lost  sinners  to  that  '  fountain  which 
has  been  opened  for  sin  and  for  un cleanness.' 
As  to  all,  therefore,  who  are  conscious  of  enter- 
taining such  sentiments  as  these — all  who  de- 
sire to  be  saved  and  who  are  disposed  imme- 
diately to  seek  for  salvation  in  God's  appointed 
way — there  is  every  thing  in  the  doctrine  of 
election  to  animate  and  encourage  them. 

Those,  however,  who  choose  to  employ  them- 
selves in  cavilling  at  the   truth — who  are  re- 
ft 

solved  to  take  the  secret  purposes  of  Jehovah 
instead  of  his  revealed  word,  as  their  rule  of 
duty,  and  to  go  on  in  their  impenitence,  heed- 
less of  all  the  love  and  mercy  of  the  gospel — 
would  do  well  to  remember  that  God  is  as  well 
a  Sovereign  as  a  Saviour,  and  that  he  will  in 


S 


v- 


70       THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

the  end  pour  out  his  indignation  "  upon  the  ves- 
sels of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction."  "  He  hath 
mercy  on  whom  he  will  have  mercy,  and  whom 
he  will  he  hardeneth."  Wilful  and  obstinate 
sinners  who  refuse  to  believe  the  plain  teachings 
of  his  word,  who  virtually  charge  him  with  in- 
justice for  not  saving  the  whole  race,  and  who 
even  presume  to  plead  his  unrevealed  decrees 
as  an  apology  for  their  impiety,  thus  making 
the  Holy  One  the  "  minister  of  sin,"  may  be  left 
to  harden  themselves  in  transgression  until  they 
make  their  perdition  sure.  If  there  be  any  of 
you  who  are  treading  on  this  dangerous  ground, 
let  me  entreat  you  to  fly  from  it  while  the  door 
of  mercy  is  yet  open  to  you.  Rest  assured  that 
if  you  perish,  you  will  not  have  the  poor  con- 
solation of  charging  your  perdition  either  to 
the  insufficiency  of  the  atonement,  or  to  the  de- 
cree of  predestination.  You  will  then  see  that 
the  mercy  of  God  brought  salvation  to  your 
very  door,  and  that  with  the  same  right  and  the 
same  encouragement  to  accept  of  it  as  any  of 
your  fellow-sinners,  you  thrust  it  from  you,  and 
" would  not  come  to  Christ  that  you  might  have- 
life."    The  consciousness  that  it  was  your  own 


NOT  DISCOURAGING  TO  MAN.  71 

hand  which  barred  the  gates- of- -heaven  against 
you,  will  be  the  bitterest  ingredient  in  your  cup 
of  misery:  and  of  all  the  harrowing,  heart- 
rending sounds  which  will  ring  in  your  ears  in 
that  world  of  wo,  the  most  agonizing  and  the 
most  incessant  will  be  that  awful  sentence, 
"  Thou  hast  destroyed  thyself  ! " 

Such  is  an  imperfect  exhibition  of  the  Scrip- 
ture doctrine  of  election,  in  respect  to  the  two 
most  popular  and  most  serious  objections  to  it. 
I  trust  it  has  been  shown  that  this  doctrine  is 
not  derogatory  to  the  divine  perfections;  and 
that  as  regards  man,  it  neither  justifies  a  pre- 
sumptuous self-confidence,  nor  is  adapted  to  dis- 
courage the  humble  and  conscientious  inquirer 
after  truth.  Most  of  the  difficulties  and  per- 
plexities experienced  on  this  subject,  arise  either 
from  a  misconception  of  the  doctrine,  or  from 
that  repugnance  to  the  sovereignty  of  God  which 
is  a  main  element  in  our  natural  depravity. 
Whether  the  doctrine  be  true  or  not,  is  a  ques- 
tion to  be  decided,  not  by  our  own  feelings,  nor 
by  creeds  and  confessions,  but  by  the  Scriptures. 
Let  me  respectfully,  but  earnestly  invite  you, 


\S 


iZ  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  ELECTION 

then,  to  examine  your  Bibles  with  diligence, 
candour,  and  prayer,  to  ascertain  "whether  these 
things  are  so."  And  if  you  find  that  the  doc- 
trine of  election  is  really  taught  in  the  word  of 
God,  let  neither  the  cavils  of  the  skeptical,  the 
sneers  of  the  ungodly,  nor  the  ridicule  of  Chris- 
tian professors  who  know  too  little  of  theology 
to  ford  even  its  shallowest  brooks,  prevent  you 
from  embracing  and  clinging  to  it.  "For  all 
rlesh  is  as  grass,  and  all  the  glory  of  man  as  the 
flower  of  grass.  The  grass  withereth,  and  the 
flower  thereof  falleth  away:  but  the  word  of 
the  Lord  endureth  for  ever.  And  this  is 
the  word,  which  by  the  gospel  is  preached  unto 
you." 


THE    END. 


DATE  DUE 

HIGHSMITH  #45231 

